Back in the Day: November 14th - Wilfried Zaha Makes His England Debut

Back in the Day

Tuesday, 14 November, 2017

Saturday 14th November 1959

Crystal Palace 5-1 Chelmsford City

FA Cup 1st Round – Att: 17,249

Manager: George Smith

Alan Woan, Dave Sexton and a Johnny Byrne hat-trick saw Palace safely through the first round of the FA Cup against non-league opposition at Selhurst Park.

Saturday 14th November 1970

Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace

League Division One – Att: 34,503

Manager: Bert Head

Just a few days after winning 2-0 at Highbury in the League Cup, a victory that turned out to be Arsenal’s only home loss of the season as they stormed to the Double, Bert Head returned with his Glaziers and managed to return to South London with a point.

John Radford gave Arsenal the lead, but the team that was complaining of tiredness due to fixture congestion could not hold on. Alan Birchenhall fired into the bottom corner from just inside the box to earn the draw.

Sunday 13th November 1999

Crystal Palace got off to the best of starts as Leon McKenzie headed home an Andy Martin cross in the first minute of the match to set the hosts on their way to a convincing victory.

That is the way it would stay until the 75 minute, despite a wonderful save from Fraser Digby and a Matt Svensson shot striking the post, when the game burst into life. A poor goal kick from Lee Harper in the Rangers goal, followed by some suspect defending saw McKenzie and Svensson through on goal. The former drew the keeper out and squared to the latter to put the game beyond QPR.

Minutes later Chris Kiwomya saw red for a second yellow after a tussle in the corner with Svensson – he would not be the only QPR player to see red before the day was out.

Shocking defending once again from the visitors allowed Svensson through on goal and Karl Ready gave the referee no choice but to send him off as he pulled the Swede down from behind in the penalty area. Hayden Mullins converted the spot kick and capped the perfect afternoon for Steve Coppell’s men.

I wonder how many times in the history of football that a substitute has been substituted by both teams, in the same match?

Wednesday 14th November 2012

Sweden 4-2 England

International Friendly – Att: 49,967

Sweden and England competed in the first ever match in the new Friends Arena in a game that will always be remembered, in the main, for Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring FOUR times, including a bicycle kick from 25 yards.

I will remember it for spending a small fortune to go and watch the game live to witness Wilfried Zaha’s debut for England. Zaha didn’t start the match, despite the full-back for Sweden being Martin Olsson, a player that Zaha had torn apart just a couple of weeks before when Palace played Blackburn at Selhurst Park. Zaha eventually came on and played for a total of 7 minutes plus stoppage time – but it was worth every penny.